Higher education

Pausing now between clearly critical games of computer mahjong (nah, I don't have homework to be doing) I thought I'd take a moment on anachronistically update this blog. You see, before the lovely trip to London that Susan so elegantly wrote about a few days ago, we went to the great educational city of Cambridge.

We had heard it was a nice place to go, and we thought it seemed reasonably low key. Susan was only just getting over sickness and we wanted to avoid any Everest-like tors, if you know what I mean. So we picked Cambridge. And what a lovely city it turned out to be!

So we get into Cambridge reasonably early. We wander into town from the trainstation, taking in the fairly banal parts of town. Even this we enjoy though because as we've noticed England is extraordinarly regionalistic, and even cities not that far apart from eachother have such different regional flairs to them. They're all quite unique and in sometimes unexpected ways -- be it architecture (Bath has so much sandstone) or cuisine (Leicester with its Indian) or what have you, even the most "boring" parts of the city provide us something neat to look at and think about.

As we're wandering, we've got only a fairly general idea where to go. We're following what we call the handy tourist signs towards "city centre". We think we're getting close, but we're not too sure. Then we turn a corner and our jaws drop:

We shuffle aside so as not to be in the way of pedestrian traffic and stand staring in near silence at King's College Cambridge. Now you have to understand that by this point we've both had almost a full semester of art history classes, more than half of which at this point have been about architecture. And this... well let's just say you don't turn corners in Vancouver and see this kind of building. Interestingly, the next art history class we were lectured about the chapel at King's College. The professor asked if anyone had been to it and we both shot up our hands rather excitedly and the prof kind of chuckled and was like "ok then... that's good."

So we tear ourselves away from King's College and wander down to the river Cam. On the way we stop at the most adorable of little bakeries with the most delicious looking baked goods and get ourselves some goodies to go with lunch. We get to the river. We had heard of this thing they do in Cambridge called punting. A punt is a small flat bottomed boat, kind of like a gondola in Venice. A dude stands at one end with a long pole and pushes you through the water. So we took a punting tour down the river Cam, along the banks of which sit the colleges of Cambridge University. We got to see all these amazing buildings and were told a bunch about their history. We went under the most quaint of bridges, saw ducks paddle by... while we were on board we brought out our baked goods (having eaten our lunch while waiting for our punting appointment) and the punter asked if we had gone to FitzBillies. "Uh... maybe?" we reply, and check the box. Indeed, that was the name of bakery. Turns out it is apparently a famous bakery. Go us. The goodies were amazing: A chocolate eclair, a Napoloeon slice, and a chocolate mouse truffle.

After punting we went back to King's College and took a look at the chapel. We were planning on going back later, but wanted to have a chance to look abotu inside. We were excited to check out the perpendicular style of gothic architecture (yay nerding out). Then we went on a bit of a wander through town, ending up at the FitzWilliam museum. They had a bunch of neat artefacts from all over and we spent a grand time just looking about. It was named the best small museum in Europe by some group or other -- small isn't quite what I'd call it!

Wrapping up at the museum, we made our way back to King's College Chapel (it sounds like we spent more time there than we did...) this time to take in Evensong. You see, King's College Chapel has a world famous choir -- you might have seen them singing their carol service on CBC sometime at Christmas. Every day there is a free choral service given and Susan and I were so on top of being a part of that. Yes, it was an actual church service, so it was something of a change of pace for the both of us, but we both really enjoyed it -- definately a highlight of the day. The singing was so beautiful and set up such an amazing atmosphere. I'm glad we were able to be a part of it.

After that we went towards the general direction of the trainstation, looking for somewhere to eat dinner. We ended up deciding we wanted Chinese food because there was a much better selection of that in Cambridge than there is in Leicester. We ended up at a place called Charlie Chan's (oh I know, the political correctness is enough to blow one's socks away) where we enjoyed a great meal, the hightlights of which were the chashew chicken in yellow bean sauce, and the toffee bananas we had for desert. Mmm.

Then it was time to head home. That... didn't quite go as planned. You see, we took a wrong turn and got temporarily lost. We had to double back a bit to get to the train station, and in so doing missed the last direct train to Leicester. This shouldn't have been a problem because it was only like 9:00 and the website had said there was another way to get home that just involved changing trains somewhere... Well we got all the way to Ely and then was told we couldn't get back to Leicester until 5:26 the next morning. We had to get back on a train. We needed to spend the night. NOT in Leicester. If you wanna hear more about how that went down, ask us in person. It's a much better story told with voices. Trust us.

All in all it was a fantastic day out. That list bit about the trains only served to teach us that we had to be just that much better with our planning. And we were! Note the London trip where nothing went wrong. And while Cambridge may not be on the very top of a tourist list, it turned out to be a city that we enjoyed even more than we thought we would. Yay!

London Bridge is Falling Down!

I feel like I've spent an obscene amount of my time in Britain trying to escape London. "What's this!" You may say, "But Susan, London is historically one of the most brilliant cities in the world!" To them I say, yeah yeah yeah! Tell me about it...

It's nice, and after our most recent day out I'm no longer liable to say the London is evvviiil! You see, my first experience in London was my first day in Britain where I got to wait over two and a half hours for the coach that would take me to Leicester... for three in the morning. I wasn't impressed, but didn't blame London for that. My second experience in London was the one where my toes turned blue... fantastic. My third experience involved a tragidy involving the Ely train station and Beth and I being forced to stay in London TILL THE 5AM/8AM LEICESTER TRAIN CAME IN. Long story, one on its own, I won't go into it... gr. Needless to say, I was unimpressed with London. So, it's no wonder when I told Beth that it was up to her to pick our second to last outing and she chose LONDON that I cringed and muttered under my breath. That city's not been good to me.

But I went, because Beth really wanted to go to theatre in London--she later told me that the only travel related regret she would have had if we hadn't done this, would have been... that we hadn't done it--so we went and I didn't complain, though clearly I was very cautious. Beth made sure she had a variety of clearly written out ways home by the train, exact times and everything. We had a lovely illustrated map of London, also produced by Beth, and we had our lunches packed. We were so ready.

And it wasn't a disaster!

First things first was a mad dash to Leicester Sqare so as to get in line for theatre tickets at discount. We did this and made friends with some lovely queer men from Cork Ireland. They were very excited over Bethany's Irish heritage and even more excited over the fact that we were from Vancouver, because "Vancouver is just lovely!"

We were happy with getting tickets for Avenue Q, Wicked, Chicago, or The Lion King. Any of those four would be good. Well, our little friends wanted to see Avenue Q, and then they later realised that they would be happy with a show that--when translated--is called "The Birdcage" it's based on a Robyn William's movie that is very good. We went up to the ticket people and paid exactly what we were hoping to for our tickets, not the best seats we're told, but whatever, we'll cope!

The little men were directly after us, I guess we got the last two tickets because they had to go to Birdcage, but then, they wanted the evening show so, *shrugs*, we did nothing!

After our tickets we wandered the square a bit, noticing a priceless sign warning us that "criminals operate in this area" which I got pictures of. We did a section of London that I hadn't seen, going to such places as the TATE Modern Art museum which I'm now in love with. The Globe theatre is right beside that, and after seeing these two biggies we walked across the Millenium bridge to go see Saint Paul's. We got day passes for the tube, which was handy, so travelling about a bit wasn't a hassle really.

We did end up back at Leicester Square again, as that's around where our theatre was located. Once we found it (using a rediculous route, though neither of us knew that) we noticed that it was right next to a British Pub, so stopped in there for dinner. This was a rather large accomplishment for us as thus far we've only eaten at British Irish pubs! Yes Irish pubs in Britain, we're so bad. This pub was quite nice I had steak and ale pie, to be all British and stuff, and Beth had chicken kiev (she says that she was going to get fish and chips but this dish just sounded too yummy, I maintain my eye roll).

We were going to have apple pie, but felt that we'd rather get settled into our seats in the theatre as, this pub was super slow, so we paid and left--not letting the London time crisis get the better of us.

Avenue Q was amazing... no joke. Sure the Noel Coward theatre isn't the best known, DON'T CARE. I feel like Avenue Q was designed with my joy in mind. Muppets, silly dancing, songs like "What do you do with an English degree," "If you were Gay," and "The internet was made for porn!" as well as a very stimulating stage design and charming actors... I'm good to go. Beth and I were helplessly giggling throughout this entire play, more so when the "Bad Idea Bears" were on stage--famous for the line "More drinks more fun YAAAAY!"

To quote Bethany, "The bad idea bears are not fictional... nope."

We went home straight after this, but not before running into a mob of feminists protesting for violence against women to end. This insighted some truly... enlightened... mysoginist comments from the gentlemen leaving the tube station. Yes, most of them. Oh and when I say mob I mean it, couldn't see their beginning or end, they took up and entire street!

Sure, it was windy and full of angry feminists (I like my feminists happy and reasonable) but London didn't do me wrong this time. The train home was relaxed if not a little tiresome. Both Beth and I got home and happily drifted off at a reasonable time: home safe, sound, and un-traumatised.

Her hair is black and her eyes are blue

Hello all!

Last weekend Alex and went to Dublin. We had a grand time, dampened by the fact that Susan wasn't there. She got sick and simply wouldn't have been able to handle a plane ride and sightseeing and drinking. But considering I've already blogged about Dublin, I'm going to let Alex have the honour of recording our trip ;)

You might be wondering how life is going for us Leicester gals when we're not all globe-trotty. We're having a pretty good time. As I mentioned, Susan was pretty ill lately but she's getting better. There were a few down right pathetic days, but we successfully did both grocery shopping AND going out for dinner yesterday, so she's clearly improving.

School's going reasonably well. The marking system is quite different from home. We're not going to be assessed on anything until the last week we're here. There has been one practice essay, but it won't count for marks. So that's different.

In general we're unimpressed with the English classes, especially the lectures. They lack the spark they can have at home. We've come up with a number of hypotheses to explain this. Our top at the moment is that they teach English almost scientifically. It's like they're saying "this is what this is about -- now let's discuss it," rather than what we're used to which is more like "here's some basis for ideas, but let's discuss what you think it's about." It feels a lot like there a right and wrong answer -- moreso than at home. In addition, every English student here takes the same core modules. At home this isn't the case. Even in classes that pretty well every English student will take (i.e. Intro to Fiction and Intro to Poetry) the course outlines and texts are always different and taught by different profs. Here they all take the exact same course. So there's not a lot of new perspectives being brought in. I talked about Plato in one seminar and was looked at like a crazy person because no one else had read Plato and no one could quite understand why I had.

History of Art, on the other hand, we're thoroughly enjoying. It feels like we learn from that class, especially when the lecturer is Phil. There are two lecturers for that class and while they're both really knowledgeable and all that, Phil is especially passionate and communicates in a way that works really well for both Susan and myself.

Other than school, things are going well too. We're getting really good at grocery shopping. We're getting to know our flatmates and a couple of people from classes. It seems weird that we go home in about a month.

We've both still got a bunch of days on our rail passes so we're going to do a bit of a whirlwind tour of England over the next couple of weeks. We're thinking day trips to places like Cambridge. Next week we plan on training up to Liverpool for Alex's goodbye party. He's made a bunch of Liverpudlian friends and they've invited us up for his last hurrah before he (really this time) goes home.

Hopefully sometime soon Alex will get on writing about our Dublin trip. I figure if I have to put up with homework, I can give him some too :P

We took the low road.

Beth and I were super excited. We were going on a trip, a whole day out to the National Art Gallery in London for only ten pounds. The trip was subsidised by the school and would last all day. Yes it would...

So. Yay us. We get dressed super quick in the morning, pack our lunches for the day, and hop on the bus with ease. Actually, quite a lot of ease considering that I was sick and thus a right pig to try and get out of the house on time... actually... it's almost impossible to ever get me out of the house on time. But, Beth and I are pretty good at coaches. We're not those people who disrespect the fact that we have a schedule to keep, and thus always try to get there on time. Which is what made us give somewhat amused looks to the clearly still sleepy Halloween casualities as they rushed their way on to the bus about ten minutes late, by the grace of their friends saying "Oh please wait just a bit longer!" Whatever.

Doctor (Mr?) Clarke took that moment to tell us that on the way home there would be no waiting, 4:45 you were on the bus and we were leaving. Ok. Off to the gallery!

This gallery, can I just say, was huge! I have never been to a more intimidating place for the arts. It's a good thing it's free, 'cause it's not something you can do in just a day. Beth and I were overwhelmed, we were swamped, we were sick and frigging tired of looking at St Sebastion pierced with a thousand arrows, and the creepy depictions of the Christ child--I'm not saying Christ is creepy, but some of the images of him as a baby are. Occassionally it looks like the kid was popped out lifting weights, which completely negates the naturalistic beauty of the Nativity. Also, there was no way that the Virgin was wearing silks when she gave birth, give me a frigging break.--we were pretty sick of the common themes dealt with in the same mannor over and over. I was beginning to feel like, because it was the free part of the gallery, it was the part where they put up the works of the Great's minions "Yeah these guys were pretty good, you have to pay to see the amazing stuff though." Granted it was better than anything I could do. Granted.

Well, we took leave of the gallery after eating lunch in the Gallery's no-man's land, where people who wanted to eat lunch and talk on their cell phones went. Good thing no one looked there.

The gallery is just across the street from the Canadian embassy, and on the other side, Trefalger (oh the spelling) square. Unfortunately, the square of containing a free concert that day... a bunch of unknown rappers and Kelly Roland. Huh. Well, we got a free can of Coke Zero out of it. I start noticing at this point that the wind is picking up, and so is the rain. My shoes, haveing taken a beating on this trip, could definitely be more water proof. Getting a bit soggy at this point. Have I also mentioned that I'm sick right now. Yeah.

Anyway, we make it to the Parliment buildings, which really are beautiful, and then Westminister Abbey right near. Took a bunch of pictures and nerded out over some architecture. Took in the tourist shop. Then back out to check out the river, even though by this time my feet are pretty god damned soaked, and disturbingly... starting to ache. Whatever. By this time it's about ten to three, or about three on the dot. I suggest we find a pub and hang there until four fourty five. First things first, we have to figure out where our bus was supposed to meet. We ask a tour guide, who gives us a neat story about how the term "break a leg" came about, and why Her Majesty's Theatre is thus named. We find our stop and look around for a nice place to wait out the hour and a quarter we have as it is now about three thirty.

We're given a lot of options, we choose Pizza Hut. Hey... it's cheap.

We get pizza, we get drinks. My feet experience a frightening cramping, Beth's fingers figure out that they can move again. Well, we figure it's about time to get the check. We get the check. We go outside where my feet feel deformed and spastic. Pained. Very pained. My hoody too... quite soggy (I don't have a coat in England. It's turning out to be an issue, but they're so expensive). This is when, while we're about four minutes ahead of schedule, is when we see the bus pull away from our stop. Our big, white, heated, coach... pulling away. Oh. God.

"Maybe it's another group's coach. Surely we're not the only group in London today." One of us says optamistically to the other. We go and wait. Quarter to five strikes on Beth's watch. Our bus still hasn't arrived, and no one from our trip is at the stop. I have a sudden horrifying idea, turn to a lovely woman waiting under the same awning as us and ask "Do you have the time?" She does. It's four fifty by her cellphone. Both Beth and I look at her watch which says four fourty six. I think we both smacked our heads.

So. We are stuck in London, in the pouring rain, in soaked clothes, me with a cold which is very unhappy with me, and SOAKED feet which are giving me new sensations every minute.

Well we ask two lovely men how to get to St Pancrus from where we were. To Piccadilly Circus it was, and the tube. Beth turned to me on our way up to the Circus, "You want to buy a tacky sovenier?" We were both still in disbelief.

I looked at her with my most pathetic of pathetic faces "I want warm feet!" I say all cutely pathetic. She laughs and we keep laughing. Through out the rest of the story you can just pretend that the feet mantra is what's threaded throughout. 'Cause I said it a lot.

So, we got onto the tube. That's eight pound for both of us.

Our bright side number 1: "You got to see Piccadilly Circus, and you got to ride the London Tube Susie!"

We get to St Pancrus and buy tickets. That's 86 pound for both of us. I'm complaining that my feet are starting to loose feeling, but not that very distressing ache...

Our bright side number 2: We'll probably still get there in the same time, maybe earlier, than the people on the coach.

We use the loos at St Pancrus, which were less than fresh smelling and hygenic.

Our bright side number 3 and 4: Hey now we know that St Pancrus has an all you can eat sushi joint in it. The toilets weren't pay toilets.

We managed to get a pretty direct train from London to Leicester. As we moved through the station we noted some fun people, and one very distressed (see wailing) little girl in a soggy jumper, I think I made comments about her having no right to complain. Petty? Yes.

On the platforms area we were directed to our platform specifically, as the sign had not previously indicated where to go. Outside I was afraid that my feet weren't stinging at all anymore... But I found a one pound coin!

Our bright side 5: We recooped some of the cost.

We got onto the train on the side that said coach, instead we walked through possibly the longest first class section ever. So when we finally got to coach it was a bit of a press to get seats. But I didn't have to fight grumpy guy again, thus...

Our bright side 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9: We found un-reserved seats together. The seats and area they were in were warm. By walking through first class we didn't have to walk outside anymore. We could take off our soggy jackets. Finally, it would be a short trip, shorter than the coach would have been.

Well we settled into our seats for a bit of a haul, watching as people who weren't as prompt as us showed up and settled in to find their own seats, and last on the train, much to our surprise (and yet not, 'cause it's us) was a troop of mimes.

Yes mimes.

A bunch of people in stripy shirts and black spandex pants who only spoke with their hands. We have no idea why these mimes couldn't be off duty mimes, but there you have it. I considered giving one of them my seat, as they too had clearly been in the rain--you could see some of their makeup running--but I would feel obligated to mime it at them, I so wasn't in the mood to mime. Also, my feet were only just remembering what a vague sense of warmth was like and I was hacking up a lung. I needed it more than the mime did. Beth spent a good portion of that trip giggling and pretending it was my fault. I insist that it's ok to giggle at mimes, they're there for our amusemet, but she didn't want to be offensive. I clearly have the better poker face.

Our bright side 10: We have great imaginations.

By the time we got the Leicester the mimes had left, they got off the stop before us, which was quite disappointing. I would have enjoyed some mimes in Leicester.

I think it was the mime's fault. But at this point we got a bit turned around in Leicester station. We can navigate Birmingham, Edinburgh, and London but not freaking Leicester? What's with that. Well, we made it out.

Well, it was one more leg of our journey until home. We didn't talk much during our walk. I was busy trying to breathe and Beth was probably feeling a similare sense of "just get me to a shower!" Also, I had to pee.

There was no bright side for me on our 2.5-3 km walk to home from the station. I was so cold. There was only blind focus. If I kept walking at a good pace I wouldn't think about the fact that I was so cold (and had to pee). Beth was a doll and offered me her coat, but that seemed kinda silly. She was warm, and then wouldn't be. No. Not cool. Also, I was already soaked through, why get her coat wet? So we powered through.

Blissfully, no one was in my shower or the downstairs washroom, when I got home.

When I took off my shoes and socks I was horrified to figure out that my worry hadn't been for naught, my toes had turned blue. Eek. Thus, I spent about a half hour under the hottest setting my shower had. My feet still weren't warm after that, but the rest of me was. Hey, my toes weren't blue any more. Bonus.

The rest of the night was spent not thinking about money and rain... though the rain was hard as it was pounding our windows but hey...

Our Bright Side 11: We were at home and not out in it any more!